US Political Youth Council Members Say Seeking Ties With Russia Despite Current Crisis

Members of the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) currently visiting Russia are willing to contribute to a stronger dialogue with the new generation of Russian leaders, despite current difficulties in the relationship between Moscow and Washington, delegation member Judith Garcia told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2018) Members of the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) currently visiting Russia are willing to contribute to a stronger dialogue with the new generation of Russian leaders, despite current difficulties in the relationship between Moscow and Washington, delegation member Judith Garcia told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the delegation of ACYPL, a NGO focused on international exchange programs, visited Russia's Civic Chamber and met with its leadership. It is the fourth day of the delegation's visit to Russia.

"We are a delegation of bipartisan leaders ... who want to gain an international perspective of international affairs, so we are taking time here meeting different leaders either political, from the ministries just to get a little bit a more of a sense of what the landscape is here, what the feeling is here, hopefully just to create stronger relationships with the new generation of leaders," Garcia said.

On Tuesday, the ACYPL delegation visited the Russian Foreign Ministry and met with young leaders from "the youth commission of Russia," seeing it as an opportunity to "build that relationship that does not focus on what the media has to say," according to Garcia.

"Something that's been key and key message that we've been learning is that problems between governments and experience 'people to people' - those are two different experiences. So yes our larger government may be having issues, yes, we might be at the worst in the record low relation, but 'people to people' experience was incredible," Garcia stressed.

Relations between Russia and the United States worsened in 2014 over Moscow's alleged involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and Crimea's reunification with Russia. Washington imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia and a number of its officials.

The United States has also accused Moscow of meddling in its 2016 presidential election, with Russian authorities denying the accusations as groundless.